I definitely have been known to stop reading a book and come back to it later when I feel like I can handle the awkward or bad, and have to do that a few times and/or lightly skim for several pages.

I’d put the book in the freezer but I pretty much exclusively read on kindle or iPad these days so not a great plan.

Put the book in the freezer.

I’d put the book in the freezer but I pretty much exclusively read on kindle or iPad these days so not a great plan.

It's an audiobook on my phone. So, not an option. I have to know how it ends because that's just the way I am. However, I may have to fast forward through some of it.

That's one good thing about hard-copy books - you can easily flip forward. Also, if you really dislike them, they make a satisfying "thwack" when you throw them against the wall.

I haven't been able to properly hold a book open while lying down for very long since I injured my neck a year ago. So, I mostly read on my tablet/kindle, which are much easier for me to hold without pain or weakness.

Listening at 2x or higher can be good in that situation. I've got myself into that many times - I really want to stop reading because the book is just bad but I do have to know what happens because I can't stand not knowing. It's a curse.

-t, I've never tried that. I'll give it a try. My new to me car has bluetooth. So, I've been able to listen to my books through the car speakers while I'm driving, which is super nice.

Thanks for the suggestion, -t. I found I could listen to the book at 1.3 speed without it sounding like the Chipmunks were reading it. It’s still not a good book but I’ll get to the end faster this way.

Sweet.

One of the doohickeys that let's me know there are even more books out there I might want to read advised me that I might like something called The Belt. Sounded like some kind of exciting accessory-themed something or other, so I checked it out, but it's just set in an asteroid belt, which might also be good but wasn't what I was hoping for by then...

So, a while back I just gave up on The Mystery of Edwin Drood (trying to figure out which edition or version or whatever to read was Too Hard I will try again when I have more brain capacity for that kind of thing), read enough of The Circular Staircase to decide that while I think I will enjoy it, it is not really a detective story as such and therefore I could skip ahead to Agatha Christie.

There is way too much Agatha Christie.

I have now read all of Miss Marple in order, because that was manageable, and enjoyable! I'm even watching what adaptations I can easily find because I have become interested in adaptations in an abstract way - like, why do they make these choice to change things? Some of them have been very faithful to the original, some have made changes I approve of, and some seem to just make random changes for no apparent reason and some of those make me sad.

Anyway, what I was coming here to say was that because I cannot possibly read all the rest of Agatha Christie without breaks, I have sidetracked into the Detection Club collaborative books. I read a sample of The Floating Admiral a while back and decided not to go any further with it, but I gave it another shot and while the Prologue remains terrible (wtf, Chesterton, why so racist?) and I cannot really say I enjoyed it as a mystery novel as such, as a dialog between writers it's really interesting. So I added some authors to my spreadsheet to look into. And I've started Ask a Policeman, where I guess authors have traded detectives? Three people I've never heard of and Dorothy Sayers (plus some foreword and the like). So the first detective is Mrs Bradley, who I have never heard of, and while this version was written by not-the-author I was intrigued enough to see what books were available. There are 65 in Kindle Unlimited! Sixty-five! I don't know how far into them I am really going to get but that is a pretty good pile.

Happy to recommend specific Poirot books, if you like. There are...a lot.